San Francisco has long stood as a place of progressive ideals – a place that not only welcomes everyone, especially the vulnerable, but supports its people and nurtures their individual gifts.

There have always been tensions between this vision and reality.

But rarely has that tension been deeper than today — and nowhere is that clearer than in the city’s schools. San Francisco isn’t the only city where life is hard for working-class and poor people, but it stands out.

The simple, disturbing fact is this:

Among similar districts across California, San Francisco ranks near the bottom in learning outcomes for low-income African American and Latino children.

“We’ve lost a significant number of congregants because of housing prices,” said Mervin Redmond, Pastor of St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church in Bayview-Hunter’s Point, who was born and raised in San Francisco…